5 Things It’s Time to Finally “Kill” On Your Funeral Home Website

Although the title might be pun-y, we take the success of funeral home websites pretty seriously here at f1.

In fact, we recently read that 75% of consumers admit to making judgements on a company’s credibility based on the company’s website design.

How’s that for important?

All that being said, giving your funeral home website a makeover doesn’t have to be complicated.

In fact, if you start by killing off these 5 elements of your website, you’ll be pretty much golden:

1. Impersonal messaging

When families visit your funeral home website, if you want them to stay, you’re going to want to hit an emotional trigger with your website’s content. A lot of research has supported the idea that people make purchasing decisions based on emotions and we totally agree with that statement. In fact, one of the core reasons why our website platform, f1Connect, is so successful is that it really speaks to the emotions your families are feeling. If you stick with impersonal messaging, you might risk losing your client families within seconds of landing on your website.

How to fix this: When crafting your messaging, think about your client families’ problem that they’re trying to solve. For every piece of content on your website, ask yourself: “what is the goal of this content?” If there is no strong value in the content for your families, consider taking it out.

Usually, website visitors will scan the headlines of your website first, so be sure your headlines draw them in and make them want to read more. For example, on Yorktown Funeral Home’s headline, they immediately let families know what their unique value is, which is celebrating life. The headline draws in the reader with value-focused content as well as an emotional state (below).

To view Yorktown Funeral Home’s website, click the image above.

2. Outdated design

A recent study found that 94% of negative website feedback was design related. That’s huge! In fact, your funeral home website design could mean the difference between being perceived as credible and trustworthy, or not. What does that mean for you? If you’re not taking your funeral home website design seriously yet, it might be time to sit down with your website and your team and make the decision to start caring about design now.

How to fix this: Most funeral home website designs tend to be outdated and uninspiring, so make sure you choose a funeral home website platform that regularly updates their designs with the times.

3. Images that are anything but captivating

Since your potential client families will spend an average of 5.94 seconds looking at your funeral home website’s main image, you might as well make it a good one. Many funeral homes overlook this huge detail and end up losing hundreds, if not thousands of funeral home website visitors from the get-go. Why? Because humans are visual creatures, and if your main header image does not communicate who you are or what your about in a captivating way, your families aren’t going to feel compelled to stick around and get to know you.

How to fix it: Choose a header image that your families can resonate with, like Posey Funeral Directors does below. Their header image is beautifully edited and makes their funeral home look welcoming and homey at first glance. Plus, if the visitors want, they offer them a chance to get to know them more through their header video.

To view Posey Funeral Home’s website, click the image above.

4. Excessive amounts of content

According to our research, if given 15 minutes to consume content, two-thirds of people would rather read something beautifully designed than something plain. That means if you’ve got huge chunks of content on your website that aren’t designed well, the messages you’re trying to convey could very well get lost in translation.

How to fix it: Try to keep your messaging concise, to the point, and like we mentioned above, value-focused. Educate your families just as much as they need to be before reaching out and beginning to build a relationship with you.

Schoedinger Funeral & Cremation does a great job educating their families without boring or overwhelming them. Their content is well balanced, easy to digest, and concise, giving families everything they need to make an informed purchasing decision from their website.

To view Schoedinger’s website, click the image above.

5. Complicated navigation

When your potential client families land on your funeral home website, are they directed where to go easily by simple navigation, and clear call-to-actions? Or, are they overwhelmed with 101 things to click on and read? A website that is hard to navigate will easily frustrated users, and potentially lose them within seconds.

How to fix this: What are the main goals for families visiting your website? Once you know these answers, make it extremely easy for families to be able to achieve their goals within seconds. Nie Family Funeral Home knows that most families visit their site to view their social memorial websites, so they’ve structured their site in a way that makes finding a tribute the easiest thing to do!

To view Nie’s website, click the image above.

Make it easy, and have it done-for-you…

Does the idea of fixing up your funeral home website push all of the overwhelm buttons inside you? Then try a done-for-you website platform that is specifically designed to help your funeral home thrive. Talk to one of our Funeral Success Specialists today to learn more about f1Connect!

Do you have any success stories you’d like to share with us about your funeral home website? Tell us in the comments below!